Fine Arts

Tomorrow morning, I’m meeting with my university’s Dean of Fine Arts to discuss all of this.

The facts are these: between 15 and 20 per cent of the Fine Arts faculty’s $3.9 million non-salary and non-permanent budget will have been cut when Concordia’s 2013-14 fiscal year begins on May 1.

I had a thought after writing all of that. Last year, the provincial government here in Québec fined Concordia University (where I’m studying theatre) $2 million because of their overly generous severance pay to exiting senior administrators. The most recent of these, former president Judith Woodsworth, received a severance package totalling $703,000 when she was forced to resign in 2011.

Let me recap. The Faculty of Fine Arts will likely lose 25 course sections going into the 2013-2014 academic year for a total savings of $250,000. One disgraced administrator is valued at $703,000 plus a fine of $2 million.